ABSTRACT
Packaging represents the product and so is a powerful marketing tool; the development of effective and attractive packaging is critical to the ability to distribute and deliver food that delights consumers. Packaging is not just materials such as paper, metal, glass, or plastic; or structures such as cans, bottles, cartons, or pouches; or a distribution vehicle such as a case. Packaging is a system whose objective is to protect the contained food product against an always-hostile environment of water, water vapor, air and its oxygen, microorganisms, insects, other intruders, dirt, pilferage, and so on—because a constant competition exists between man and his or her surroundings. Protection means the establishment of a barrier between the contained food product and the environment that competes with man for the food product. Food packages hold or contain food products. The presence of debris, foreign matter, microorganisms, and the droppings of insects and rodents in food products is intolerable.
